Getting your icebreaker right
What’s your favourite icebreaker? You may not be able to remember ones that have worked well – that’s because the best icebreakers don’t stand out like a sore thumb. They just feel like a conversation between new friends, or like collaboration.
Getting icebreakers right is important when facilitating any sort of session, but even more so in evaluation in focus groups for data-collection or evaluation design or findings workshops where introductions are necessary. Why?
- sharing your views and experiences with strangers can feel quite vulnerable – especially if the topic is one which is sensitive
- engaging with evaluation design can create anxiety – about what the evaluation will find, about having to do more work, or from feeling like you should know more about evaluation than you do
- hearing findings about your work can feel scary and create defensive responses, and in some cases findings workshops can feel like a microcosm of the organisation’s culture, power imbalances and psychology.
Getting them wrong can feel oh so awkward, and can set a group off on the wrong footing.
So how do you find the right icebreaker?
My preference for most contexts is to create an idea for an icebreaker specific to each focus group or workshop. Sometimes this is a question or very short activity like choosing one of several images to represent a feeling (selecting from provided images/emojis can feel less vulnerable than offering a word or feeling of your own).
My process usually goes something like this:
- I ask myself what we are trying to achieve in the workshop and what this might require of participants (courage; sensitivity; curiosity; self-reflection; recall) – can I create an icebreaker question that ‘switches on’ these things? For example if I’m trying to evoke curiosity, can I ask people to pose a question they would most like to see the data answer?
- I think about things that can inform group dynamics: power dynamics or perceived power dynamics, vulnerability, openness to play, how people in a workshop are likely to want to present to others in the workshop (for example: competent and professional; friendly and collegiate; involved or at a remove) and I assess whether my idea for an icebreaker is likely to play well or poorly with this dynamic, or if I need to give people an opportunity to demonstrate their positionality in relation to the work ahead. I might even need to do something to set the scene before the icebreaker – “all feelings about this topic are valid”
- I think about the context of the project – can I tie back the icebreaker to the topic of the project somehow (if appropriate) to put people in the headspace of thinking about their experiences?
This might seem like a lot to think about but I’ve found it has become second nature, and is the icing on the cake which I enjoy applying my creativity to when the bulk of the preparation and planning for a workshop is complete.
So, what’s your icebreaker process?
